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The role of family in adolescence
Adolescence role of family
The role of family in adolescence
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It is an undisputable fact that every person regardless of sex, age, lifestyle or intelligence strives for a level of perfection in others as well as themselves. When evolving into adulthood, we start setting goals and looking for ways we can be perfectly happy in our lives. When we envision our adult lives, it is based on our lives during childhood. The role of adults in our young lives, as well as, what we live with or without, plays a role in what we perceive as perfection. As did Eveline, the main character of James Joyce’s 1914 short story “Eveline”. Based on her personal experiences with both her father and her mother, in addition to what she witnessed as her parents interacted with each other helped Eveline choose her path to what could be happiness and perfection in her adult life. When we interpret the level of perfection in others, we also base these perceptions on our own personal experiences as well as our own imperfections.
The search for personal perfection starts when we decide we know, or think we know, what perfection could or should be. Once a person as has decided what will get them one step to perfection, he or she will start and/or continue setting goals to have a career that is worth wild of a perfectionist; such as a doctor or a lawyer. For those who believe themselves and their lives have achieved perfection, will sometimes feel the need to extend this perfection to include others around them, normally a spouse or child. The changing of another’s perfection usually will begin with the outer image. As did, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character, Aylmer in the 1843 short story “The Birthmark”. Aylmer meets a wonderful woman … and persuaded a beautiful woman to become his wife (McMahan 225). Aylmer soon found out...
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...days are just days of trials and tribulations that continually keep us striving for perfection. As mentioned earlier, there are good reasons - safety, love, and health - to make the change for a life more perfect and positive. But with every negative there is a positive. Looking for perfection with a blind eye can only cause you fear, unhappiness and regret. Striving for perfection in one self as well as in another should not be taken lightly. The person that you envision for yourself and others, may not be the person you end up being or being with.
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birthmark.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth
McMahan et al. Boston: Longman, 2011. 4-7.Print
Joyce, James. “Eveline.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al.
Boston: Longman, 2011. 225-235.Print
One of the major themes in "The Birthmark" is man’s obsession with perfection. Through the birthmark on Georgiana, Hawthorne is able to portray that nature didn’t intend for things to be perfect. People are not perfect because the human condition is imperfect. Aylmer’s desire to make his wife perfect is doomed to failure because perfection, Hawthorne suggests, is the exclusive province of heaven that cannot be found on earth. Because she becomes an ideal being, completely unmarred, Georgiana is no longer able to exist in this
The words “beautiful” and “perfect” are both vague yet relative concepts as they are defined from person to person. In Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark,” imperfections perceived by one are also seen as defining in beauty by another. Perfection, as sought by Aylmer, became an obsession which in the end required Georgiana to undergo a process of transmutation to become perfect and therefore a more desirable human being in Aylmer’s eyes. The concept of “bodily perfection” remains the same today as it was in Hawthorne’s time: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it is who the beholder is that is of greatest importance when determining the value of the opinion being shared. For Georgiana, Aylmer’s happiness, or lack thereof, defined the way in
It is hard to say that one is human and perfect at the same time. Human beings are not capable of achieving perfection; if that would be so, humans would stop being humans. By nature the human race is full of flaws, some appearing as early as in the womb. From defects in the body, to defects in the mind, to the mistakes that one makes in quotidian life, it is impossible to deny that human imperfection exists. To try to manipulate humans into perfection is not only impossible, but it takes away the very essence of being a human being. The short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, illustrates this teaching through the character of Aylmer, an ambitious and devoted scientist who is appalled by his wife Georgiana’s birthmark, believing it to be a perceivable sign of her human flaws and eagerly waits to remove it from her cheek. This story raises riveting questions such as, what is humanity all about, can human beings ever achieve perfection through science, is Hawthorn attacking science or a wider issue, and more significantly, should science take the place of God. Through the use of symbolism in “The Birthmark”, Hawthorn indirectly implies that imperfection is an essential part of being human and that science should not interfere; thus he is hinting his personal views toward science and its limitations over nature.
Constant failure can cause someone to ask: “why am I even trying?” and “what the point if I can’t do it perfectly?”. Teresa Borchard writes about her losing sight of a path in front of her in her article "Good Perfectionism versus Bad Perfectionism", where she talking about getting caught in an OCD loop stating: “I have trouble letting go of the decision I made last week, or a mistake I made six years ago, or something in the future that I’m preparing for” (Borchard). Gawain experiences the same kinds of set-backs during the poem, often veering off the path in front of him because of his constant want for perfection. Even when he accomplishes a goal, he feels as though he doesn’t actually deserve any positive reinforcement because he wasn’t perfect with every step of the way. For example, Gawain states "I am greatly honoured, though I am not in fact such a man as you speak of, to deserve such respect as you have just described I am completely unworthy, I know very well” (Sir Gawain… 1241-1244). Rejecting encouraging feed-back as well as getting caught up in the small imperfections of something positive are both results of striving for complete perfection. It is easy to “forget that as humans we’re part of nature, as well. As such, we would benefit if we came into acceptance of the natural flow of life, which by the way,
Aylmer, the protagonist, in “The Birthmark” becomes selfish as a result of his obsession to remove a miniscule birthmark from his beautiful wife’s face in order to achieve perfection. As a consequence of a small and distinct birthmark on his wife’s left cheek, Aylmer frightened, thinks the birthmark is evil that symbolizes sorrow, decay, and death. Although, the birthmark is benign and harmless, that only denotes the flaws that nature has left on a human being, to Aylmer it represents his wife's imperfection, which needs to be fixed and extracted. As a result of attempting to remove the birthmark in order to achieve perfection, Aylmer blinds himself and does not think of the consequences. He dreams of the fatal outcome th...
"Eveline" is the story of a young teenager facing a dilemma where she has to choose between living with her father or escaping with Frank, a sailor which she has been courting for some time. The story is one of fifteen stories written by James Joyce in a collection called "Dubliners". These stories follow a certain pattern that Joyce uses to express his ideas: "Joyce's focus in Dubliners is almost exclusively on the middle-class Catholics known to himself and his family"(the Gale Group). Joyce's early life, family background, and his catholic background appear in the way he writes these stories. "Where Joyce usually relates his stories to events in his life, there are some stories which are actually events that took place in his life" (Joyce, Stanislaus). James Joyce in his letter to Grant Richard writes:
Although “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in the mid-1800s, its themes and ideas are still a part of society today. The 19th century was a time of change, just as this, the millennium, is a time of great change. Hawthorne’s ideas about science, beauty, and life still play a major part in our lives, despite many improvements. Even today, people try to play “God” and change things that nature has put in place. It’s human curiosity; how much can be changed, how many things can be perfected? The themes in this short story-- religion, gender, and science--were relevant in Hawthorne’s day, and still are many years later. The theme of religion is hidden in the desire to erase the birthmark. In trying to “perfect” Georgiana, Aylmer is testing God’s creation. He doesn’t believe that how God created Georgiana is perfect, and he is obsessive about making her his idea of perfection. Aminadab, Aylmer’s servant, tries to tell his master to leave the birthmark alone. He tells Aylmer that if Georgiana were his wife, he wouldn’t worry about something so trivial. However, the scientific ideas on Aylmer’s mind won’t let him forget the birthmark. He believes he can remove it with the help of science. Even so, science has no part in creation, according to Hawthorne, and Georgiana’s death after the removal of the birthmark signifies that theory. Her death is Hawthorne’s way of showing that judgment and perfection are God’s duti...
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” the central theme of fiction provides several different kinds of marriages and relationships that ultimately result in the same ending. The “Happy Endings” shows that it’s difficult to have complete control over day-to-day events. No matter how hard society tries to achieve the perfect life, it does not always go as planned. It doesn’t matter if the characters are bored and depressed, confused and guilty, or virtuous and lucky; the gradual path of version A is not always in reach.
...o act unjustly. In order to sustain perfection there needs to be a willingness to negatively affect others for personal gain, such as the corporate leaders of the Compounds and their consumers, and Crake and all of the people close to him. The best way to avoid this very common and toxic desire in life is to be completely and utterly satisfied with the self and have no passion for perfection like Jimmy did. His acceptance of his dysfunctional family and himself allowed him to avoid the deception that is perfection.
This proves the fact that “Perfection” is like a dream. When people finally see the flaws, they wake up and the dream ends.” Works Cited Gioia, Dana, and X.J. Kennedy. The "My Last Duchess. " Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, Interactive Edition.
James Joyce is widely considered to be one of the best authors of the 20th century. One of James Joyce’s most celebrated short stories is “Eveline.” This short story explores the theme of order and hazard and takes a critical look at life in Dublin, Ireland in the early 20th century. Furthermore, the themes that underlie “Eveline” were not only relevant for the time the story was wrote in, but are just as relevant today.
1. Our society tends to be obsessed with the idea of physical perfection. How does our society manifest that obsession? How is the 'Birthmark'; an early version of our modern obsession with physical perfection?
Pacht (1984) states that perfectionists are the ones who set high standards without any reason, and they try to accomplish their goals. The perfectionists think that in truth only exists extremes but there is no middle ground. For them percentage of success as a rate of 95% or higher is a failure because they have to be 100% perfect. For example if they were given a rate they will focus on the failure rate. Perfectionism can be explained as a desire to gain the high standards of performance. But perfectionists can not fulfill their expectations so they critise themselves (Pacht, 1984). Hamachek in 1978 (as cited in Schwarz, Gairret, Araguete, & Gold, 2005) found that there are two types of perfectionists: Normal and neurotic perfectionists. Normal perfectionists are the ones who can select pleasure in normal degrees from their occupations and they need approval from others just like anyone else. They think that it is a good way to give encouragement. Encouragement is needed to become better. Normal perfectionists are the normal form of perfectionism so they can concentrate on the good ways to gather perfectionism. They have quite normal expectations from themselves. Latter one wants more performance than they can do so they become unsatisfied because they think that they can not do better as anyone else. Neurotic perfectionists are not like normal perfectionist so they are not comfortable with their performance. There were non-pathological perfectionists and pathological perfectionists. Non-pathological perfectionists are the ones who can make big standards and they believe that it is essential for perfection. Pathological perfectionists are the ones who set standards and make decisions and they have a critical concern over mistak...
In James Joyce’s “Dubliners”, Eveline is undoubtedly one of the more captivating characters. She was forced into the role of housewife after the death of her mother. Her father’s abusive nature and along with these new responsibilities leaves Eveline in a struggle to find meaning in her life and to overcome her existential vacuum and a fear of change. However, Eveline is unable to overcome her anticipatory anxiety. Instead of deciding, she becomes a victim of her own paralysis as she stands completely still and silent as if she was mentally absent. These events stated above have a major impact on Eveline.
In the short story Eveline by James Joyce, the author challenges the morals of a young woman torn between desire and familial obligation. Joyce manipulates the theme of reflection as a tool for Eveline to make a life altering decision of staying in the comfortable atmosphere where she confined and controlled by her father and her boss, or to run off to the unknown with a man who loves her and offers her a life of security. This essay will analyze and explain the deixis, cohesion, process and participant type, discourse types and narrative structure in the text that enhance the emotion effect of the story.